


The Walrus and The Ranger

by amosanguis



Series: author's fave [61]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fisherman, Alternate Universe - Military, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, Gen, M/M, POV Multiple, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: BM1 Billy “Bones” Manderly, U.S. Coast Guard, is just trying to do his job; too bad Charles Vane, captain of theRangerfishing trawler, is making it difficult.





	The Walrus and The Ranger

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salvamisandwich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salvamisandwich/gifts).



> \--Military note: Billy’s rating – meaning his job title & rank – is a BM1, so he’s a Boatswain’s Mate (job) and he’s a petty officer first class (rank; translates to E-6, with the E indicating that he’s enlisted, not an officer). Other rates mentioned: QM1 (Quartermaster), CS2 (Culinary Specialist petty officer second class, an E-5), and CSC (Culinary Specialist – chief petty officer, an E-7)  
> \--For Laura, who encouraged this on twitter.

-z-

 

_“Don’t you feel the love tonight?"_

“No, I don’t, _Ranger_ ,” BM1 Billy “Bones” Manderly yells into the receiver. “Get off this frequency. Over.”

 _“_ Walrus, _darling, I was worried I’d lost you. Over.”_

“Just one day, _Ranger_ ,” Billy says, rubbing at his forehead and pointedly ignoring the snickers coming from behind him. “All I’m asking is for you to behave yourself for _one_ day. Over.”

 _“I tried,_ Walrus, _honestly – I did.”_

Billy snorts, rolls his eyes. He didn’t believe that captain with his stupidly husky and raspy voice for a second.

_“It’s just that I’ve missed our chats. We really do need to have a beer sometime. Over.”_

A round of wolf whistles choruses the bridge and Billy glares half-heartedly at the portly QM1 Hal Gates, hunched over his chart table, and CS2 John Silver and CSC Randall Joffe, who always found their way up to the bridge whenever the _Ranger_ was in sight. Silver in particular seemed to delight in Billy’s quarrels with the _Ranger’s_ ornery captain.

Billy’s still glaring as he says into the receiver, “That’s a negative, _Ranger_. Sun’s going down in a few minutes – get yourself home safe. _Walrus_ over and out.”

“I don’t know why you let him get underneath your skin like that,” Hal says, shaking his head even as he twirls a pencil in his hand.

Billy sighs, rolls his eyes as he walks over to the chart table himself and leans against it. “When I know that answer, QM1, I’ll let you know myself.”

 

-

 

“ _Ranger_ to _Walrus_ , you there, _Walrus_? Over,” Charles asks, settling deeper into his chair, eyes scanning the horizon to land on the boat he knew all too well.

“ _Negative, over_ ,” comes the distinct reply in a voice Charles had fallen in love with the first time it yelled at him about maintaining radio silence and how some frequencies need to stay clear.

“ _Walrus_ , just have a quick question. Why are you British?” Charles asks, ignoring the way Anne rolls her eyes so hard she may have seen the back of her own skull. “Since when did the Americans start recruiting from the British Navy? Are you on loan? Over.”

There’s a long moment of quiet where Charles isn’t sure he’s going to get an answer, and just as Jack, who’s got one hand on the _Ranger’s_ steering wheel and the other on a bottle of water, is opening his mouth to say something surely stupid, _Walrus_ answers.

“ _It’s called dual citizenship,_ Ranger,” he says. “ _Keep this frequency clear. Goodnight and get home safe._  Walrus _over and out_.”

Charles sighs heavily as he places the radio receiver back on its hook, letting his head loll to the side to look at his XO. “I love him, Anne.”

Anne Bonny just gives him a pitying look.

“I know,” Charles says, standing. “Time to check the nets.”

 

-

 

It’s not the first time Billy’s had to pull his very own Captain James “Flint” McGraw out of a bar fight at _Max’s Bar & Grill_, and it’s not bound to the last.

It’s also not the first time that Police Officers Eleanor and Scott show up to take witness statements, looking spiffy as always in their uniforms as Billy apologizes for his captain’s behavior, promises that it won’t happen again even as Eleanor glares and Scott puts them all in handcuffs.

It _is_ the first time that, while sitting on the curb in said handcuffs, that Billy hears an all too familiar voice begins singing: “Can you feel the love tonight?” Dragging out all the right words in all the right places.

Billy feels his spine straighten as McGraw’s and Silver’s heads whip around so fast, Billy was sure they were going to injure themselves.

The singing man notices their sudden interest and stops singing just long enough to ask, “You want to go again?”

At which point Billy is standing and strolling over to the singing man and he’s yelling, before he can even think to stop himself, “It’s _you_.”

“Yeah, I’m me,” the man responds, leaning backwards so he could continue to look Billy in the face.

“ _You’re_ the fucking _Ranger_ who can’t quit singing on—” and that’s as far as Billy gets before the stranger is jumping to his feet, and yelling out himself,

“It’s _you_.”

“Yes, it’s—”

“Fuck, you’re so tall, how do you even fit—”

“It’s not fun. _Why_ are you always singing—”

“Because that _is_ fun—”

“I can’t believe—”

“Neither can I. I mean—”

“This is just—”

“It’s fucking crazy.”

“— _crazy_ , yes. Exactly. _Crazy_.”

 

-

 

Charles chuckles, lets himself step in close so that he and the Coastie were almost chest-to-chest, nose-to-nose, and says, “Y’know, sailor, if you wanted to take me up on that beer, all you had to do was say so.”

The sailor just chuckles low in chest as he closes that little bit of distance between them, leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to Charles’s nose, “Easy, _Ranger_ , I think we need to make bond first.”

“Damn, right,” Eleanor snaps, suddenly cutting between them as she yanks Charles away and stuffs him not-so-gently into a waiting cruiser and sends him on his way.

 

-

 

 _One month later_.

 

“ _Ranger_ ,” Billy shouts into the receiver, “just because we’re dating now _still_ doesn’t mean you can use this frequency whenever you want. Keep this channel _clear_. Over.”

“ _Roger_ , Walrus _, I just needed to know if you wanted beer or wine for tonight? Over._ ”

Billy, using every ounce of self-restraint he has, doesn’t order the _USCGC_ _Walrus_ to go hard to starboard and ram the _Ranger_ and her stupidly endearing captain. Instead, Billy closes his eyes and takes a few calming breaths, before he says, “Beer, _Ranger_. Now, the sun’s setting so you go and get yourself home safe. Over.”

“ _Can do,_ Walrus _. Over and out._ ”

 

-z-

 

End.


End file.
